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Older Faster Stronger: #2016 #runningstreak

So this idea popped in my brain a few days ago and, crazy as it is, I’ve decided to go with it.

A few years ago, the bizarre idea of running a marathon lodged itself my brain and would not let go even though I had never wanted to run one; in fact, I swore to all my running buddies that the half marathon was as far as I’d ever race. But I went with that gonzo idea and it worked out pretty well. Great health, happy brain, youthful energy, weight loss, quitting smoking, forging new best friends, heck, a running book all followed!

So here I am on New Year’s Day running around the Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport because a) it’s one of the few low traffic areas to run near my sister-in-law’s, where we visiting and b) the crazy idea that popped into my brain a few days ago was this: Run every single day for the entire 2016 year.

Here’s why the idea is nutso: A body needs rest, so running every day is not necessarily healthy. I’ll have to work hard to vary run lengths (what’s the minimum I can go and still feel like I have run?) and develop a strict routine of cross training, stretching, yoga etc. to stay injury free.

But here’s why I’m starting this running streak: In a word, focus.

My best writing days always follow on the heels of the mornings I run. And I am digging into a massive new writing project in 2016 that will require intense singular solitary focus, more than I can muster now.

Training for marathons turned back my biological clock back a couple of decades. So I am putting my faith in running again, to help me develop the kind of deep focus required to get me to the finish line of my next writing project.

I run for a huge pile of reasons but mostly I run so that I can write.

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Books on the Run

This incredibly handy book let’s you take Felstead’s Yoga for Runners practice anywhere you can take a book – the park, the cottage deck, the beach. I got hooked on yoga to help me build strength and flexibility for marathon running, but don’t always have the time to get to a studio for the two or three sessions a week I crave. Felstead came to the rescue with her DVD series that took me from novice to intermediate, but saying Namaste to the TV screen wears after awhile.